We Don’t Just Blow Into Our Instruments

Can breathing be a technology, and how does our breathing evolve?

When we think of technology, we list off every electronic device that comes to mind, and if we can’t think of any more, then we search on the internet, which is also categorized into the electronic department. But what is rarely thought of as a technology is the body. Your body, my body, everyones body. More specifically, an involuntary function in our body: the breath. Ok… isn’t technology supposed to be techy or something? No. The breath is something we as musicians, and I guess also as human beings, depend on. Technology is something developed and in turn used as a way to facilitate something, or to make something work. In order to make most of our musical instruments work, we must use an airstream, which needs our breath. We don’t just *breathe* into our instruments — there is a lot of thought that goes into making the airstream. Airstream is a development of our breath; it is something we manipulate for our own use, therefore making it a technology to musicians.

We never really wake up and think “oh man maybe I should breathe”, but as musicians, we lock ourselves in practice rooms and obsess and over analyze breathing and airstream; it is no longer involuntary. It dictates intonation, tone, color, vibrancy, pitch accuracy, etc… As a flutist, any pain in my body, stiff jaw, tight chest, wack oral chamber, affects the outcome of my air that I am trying to achieve. So there is a reason to obsess over it — we cannot play our instruments beautifully without it. The development of our breath into airstream has sparked an interest in developing other technologies to even further improve our breath, which in turn helps our airstream, such as variations on the breath builder , breathing bags, finger breathing, and other breathing accessories specific to instrument types, such as the Pneumo Pro for flutists.

It is interesting to think that musicians hold and attend classes that teach you how to breathe. Like, why do I need to sit here for an hour listening to some old guy talk about breathing? Over time, and across the globe, musicians developed different ways of explaining and manipulating breathing. These classes, although sound boring, help us think about breathing and air, rather than doing it mindlessly and involuntarily. I’ve definitely attended classes like these and each time I would freak out because I would suddenly overthink breathing and then I sit there very uncomfortably breathing for the rest of the class, but also I have a new perspective of breathing as a tool for improvement.

But actually productively thinking about how your air moves through your body, then how it moves through your instrument, allows you to develop as a musician, since air has so much to do with playing (which is pretty wild honestly). Usually the longer you play an instrument the more organic this dream airstream becomes (obviously with lots of practice). I breathe everyday and think about my air when I play so I hope maybe someday I’ll have a marvelous airstream too!

• https://didgeproject.com/free-didgeridoo-lessons/strengthen-breath-expand-lung-capacity-wind-instruments/
• https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/music/music-instruments-orchestra/woodwinds-music/v/flute-interview-demo
• http://kimballtrombone.com/breathing/respiratory-training-for-musicians/